


homin | home is where the heart is

by plincess_cho (ai_hao)



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 20:51:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9676220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai_hao/pseuds/plincess_cho
Summary: Yunho discovers what the concept of home really means.





	

They’re moving yet _again,_ and Yunho hates it. They dump all of their boxes into the living area of their new dorm before they’re hustled off to schedules without even a moment to unpack. Not that they would anyways: they’ve moved so many times that the boys have all given up on unpacking.

“We’re just going to move again in a few weeks,” Junsu rationalizes. “Why bother?”

He’s not wrong. The five of them have lived in seven different dorms in the past three years, so who’s to say this will be the last? Any time they start to feel settled, their dorm is [mobbed by hundreds of fans](http://yoonmin.tumblr.com/post/44324173779/key-talks-about-tvxq-when-asked-if-it-gets-noisy) and then the manager will announce it’s time to leave. After the fourth move, Yoochun had declared that he would live out of boxes unless they were there more than a month. They’d moved right before week four.

The only one who will unpack is Changmin. He’ll spend every spare second they have unpacking his boxes, setting up his things, and trying to create some semblance of home in the small space allotted to him. He’ll retreat into his room the minute they return back to the dorms, and Yunho doesn’t blame him. They have so few consistencies in their lives these days.

This time, they find out that their new dorm only has three bedrooms in addition to the living area and kitchen. One of the bedrooms can’t even really be classified as a bedroom, as it’s small enough to be considered a moderately-sized closet. The manager dishes out room assignments and sticks Changmin in the tiny room. The others complain about having to share, but Yunho doesn’t mind. They’re hardly there anyways, and Changmin’s room will probably make Yunho claustrophobic. Yunho dumps his boxes into the room he’ll share with Jaejoong and arranges them up against the wall. He pulls out a blanket and pillow from one of the boxes and figures that’s as much setting up as he needs to do.

*

A few days later, they all have a few hours to kill before their next set of schedules and all five come back to the dorm for a rest. Changmin immediately scurries off to his closet to finish unpacking while the others lounge in the living room.

“Why are you even bothering to unpack?” Yoochun calls. “Just leave all your junk in the boxes.”

Changmin just grunts in reply and disappears into his room. 

“What a freak,” Yoochun mutters under his breath. 

Junsu snickers. “He’s like a housewife with the way he arranges everything. So meticulous. It’s weird.”

Yunho tries to ignore them and heads for the kitchen in search of snacks instead.

*

He has a break from schedules and the manager drops him off at the dorms to nap. Yunho drags himself up the stairs and pushes open the front door to find an empty dorm. Grateful for the respite, he walks in, changes his shoes, and heads for his room. He passes Changmin’s room and finds the door open. Curious, he peeks his head inside to find all of Changmin’s things unpacked and arranged around the room. One box functions as a nightstand upon which stand a cheap alarm clock, a picture frame, and a notebook. His clothes are either hung up on the tension rods on one side of the room or stacked neatly in piles against the wall. His bed is neatly made with a quilt that Yunho suspects Changmin’s mother made for him spread across the bedspread. The entire room feels comforting: it feels like this space is somewhere Changmin actually _lives_ instead of just a space that he comes back to sometimes. Yunho thinks about his own room, with boxes piled every which way. 

Before he realizes it, he’s crawled onto Changmin’s bed and falls asleep, hugging the quilt tightly. 

*

Yunho wakes up to find the quilt gone and a warm body curled up next to him on the bed. He cracks open one eye to find Changmin snoozing next to him, wrapped up in the quilt and dead to the world. Yunho feels a bit guilty for stealing Changmin’s bed, but it appears that Changmin himself had no trouble falling asleep. Yunho gingerly rolls off one side of the bed and tiptoes out as to not disturb Changmin. He stands in the doorway and looks down at the maknae.

 _Changmin has the right idea,_ Yunho thinks to himself. _He makes his own home._

*

The others move out almost immediately after announcing their departure. Changmin says that’s for the better, even though the dorm feels emptier than it ever has before. Yunho wishes they were still here so he can give them a piece of his mind (or his fists). Yunho stands in the doorway of the empty room Jaejoong and Junsu shared and sighs. They’ll probably have to move again and he’d only just unpacked his boxes from the last move. He’d thought that… well… that maybe things were going to be okay for awhile. 

But he’d been wrong. 

He walks back to his room and lies on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Even his room doesn’t feel homey. Maybe it’s never felt homey, but now it especially feels like just another space Yunho occupies before moving on to the next spot. In the past, his member had been the one consistent thing in his life, but now…

He hears the front door open and the sound of keys dropping into the bowl by the door. He can tell by the pattern of footsteps that it’s Changmin. He supposes Changmin will be the only one coming back now.

“Hyung?” Changmin calls softly. “Are you here?”

“I’m here,” Yunho calls.

Changmin appears in the doorway and says, “Oh, just wanted to let you know I’m home.”

 _Home._ The way Changmin says it sounds so natural, so _wonderful,_ like there actually is a home here still to have. 

“I brought dinner,” Changmin continues. “If you’re hungry.”

They eat dinner at the kitchen table that seems far too large for only two. They eat in silence, not sure of what to say to each other. After all, when was the last time they were here alone together? It had been ages.

“I guess we’ll have to move again,” Changmin says, breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” Yunho replies.

“I hate moving,” Changmin admits. “I hate having to pack everything up and leave. I hate the constant change. I hate finally feeling settling and then having to uproot everything.”

“Yeah,” Yunho replies. He takes a swig of water and then says, “Mainly, I hate that any time you move… You can’t go back to the place you once called home. It’s a home no longer.”

“Yeah,” Changmin says softly. “Soon this home will be gone as well.”

Yunho sighs. 

*

They decide to live separately. It’ll be easier that way, the management tells them. They can keep all of their things there, beef up security as needed, and decrease the allure for the fans of running into all of them at once. Yunho doesn’t mind: he selects a moderately-priced pre-furnished flat close to the SM building (and close to his favorite food stalls). Changmin decides to move into the same complex as Kyuhyun. Yunho doesn’t blame him: the Super Junior dorms have felt more like home to them than anywhere they’ve lived recently. 

It takes awhile for Yunho to adjust to living alone. It’s the first time he’s lived by himself in his entire life, and he sort of hates it. He makes any excuse not to go back to his apartment alone until finally his manager pulls him aside and asks what’s up. 

“It’s just so… empty,” Yunho says with a shrug. “It doesn’t feel like home. There’s no one there to give it life.”

Everyone suggests he get a pet or at the very least some houseplants, but Changmin vetoes that immediately. “He’ll kill anything living within the first week.” And he isn’t wrong. 

*

When they start promoting in Japan full-time, the two of them decide to get a shared apartment. 

“It makes more sense,” Changmin says simply. “We can share expenses and not have the trouble of maintaining two apartments when we’re back in Korea.”

Yunho agrees. He also doesn’t mind having Changmin tidy up after him, nor does he mind simply having Changmin _there_. Japan still feels foreign and unfamiliar to him, even though he’s spent a good chunk of the last few years promoting there. Japanese still doesn’t roll of his tongue quite as easily as he’d like, and frankly, it’s just nice having someone who he’s known for so long so closely.

Yunho finds himself sitting on the couch with a beer, watching Changmin bustle around the kitchen as he tries some dish Kyuhyun had texted him about. He realizes that in all of the places he’d moved, he’s always had Changmin with him. When they’re back in Korea, he’ll crash at Changmin’s place more often than not just for a dose of something familiar and… comforting.

*

He and Changmin have been apart for several weeks. They’ve both had filmings for different solo activities and haven’t had a chance to meet up. Yunho hops into the van by himself for the ride to the airport. Changmin will be arriving separately as he’ll be coming straight from another feeling. Yunho can’t help but worry a bit. They haven’t talked much as they’ve been incredibly slammed with schedules, but he hopes things have gone well for Changmin.

The van pulls up to the airport departures lane and Yunho hops out. A familiar van pulls in directly behind them and suddenly, a very familiar mop of brown hair appears.

[“Changdola!” ](http://madamteatime.tumblr.com/post/120175989716)Yunho exclaims with a smile, not being able to stop himself. Changmin looks up from fussing with his backpack and gives Yunho a broad grin.

In that moment, Yunho realizes that home isn’t a place or an apartment. Home isn’t an address or where his bed is or where he can leave his clothes on the floor without being scolded. No, for him, home is a person. Home is a familiar smile, a joyful laugh, and a reassuring arm brushing against his own.

For Jung Yunho, _home_ is Shim Changmin.

*

They’re asked to describe what they mean to each other for an interview. Changmin describes Yunho as [“love and war,”](http://plincess-cho.tumblr.com/post/139672978394) and he’s not wrong. Yunho laughs thinking about their encounter just that morning where Changmin had scolded him for running inside with his shoes on. They’d found that living together could be a challenge: Changmin likes things tidy, Yunho doesn’t care where his shoes go. Changmin has a particular way of doing _everything:_ cleaning, cooking, organizing, _squeezing the toothpaste_. It amuses Yunho to no end the things Changmin will grouse at him for.

There’s an awkward silence and Yunho realizes that it’s his turn. He thinks careful before replying, “Home. No matter what happens, you can always go back home.”

And he means it. Through all the dorm changes, band changes, life changes, he’s always been able to come back to Changmin. His physical home changes. His address changes, his surroundings change, and even his lease changes, but the one constant in his life for the past decade has yet to change.

*

Yunho spends the night of his discharge getting absolutely hammered with the Super Junior boys and some of the managers. Everyone is glad to have him back and he laughs along with the rest of them as they swap army stories. He’s asked a few days later how it feels to be home, and he realizes that it hasn’t really sunk in yet. His apartment is the same as he remembered, but it doesn’t really feel like he’s back. Leeteuk tells him that’s normal and that it takes awhile to adjust back to idol life again.

But then, he gets a collect call from the Seoul police headquarters informing him that he shouldn’t make weekend plans because there’s someone who wants to see him. Yunho blocks off his Saturday and waits patiently for the doorbell to ring and for a tall, familiar soldier to walk in the door.  
Yunho hugs Changmin tightly and heaves a sigh of relief.

Now, now he feels like he’s truly home.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated :D


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